From:Michael Moore

THIS
WONDERFUL, HUMOROUS FILMAKER ACTUALLY CAME UP WITH A BRILLIANT IDEA ON
HOW TO SAVE THE COUNTRY FROM THE BANKSTERS. THIS IDEA IS A PIP. HE POINTED
OUT THAT WE ALREADY OWN A UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE INSTRUMENT IN AIG, AND
WHEN WE BUY A FEW BANKS, WE WILL OWN THE AGENCY FOR ALL THE MICROLENDING
ANY OF US COULD EVER NEED. WISH THERE WERE ONE LIKE HIM IN THE SENATE!
BRAVO MICHAEL MOORE!

You are a NATIONAL TREASURE!

Friends,

The
richest 400 Americans—that’s right, just four hundred people— own
MORE than the bottom 150 million Americans combined. 400
rich Americans have got more stashed away than half the entire country!
Their combined net worth is $1.6 trillion. During the eight years of the
Bush Administration, their wealth has increased by nearly $700 billion—the
same amount that they are now demanding we give to them for the “bailout.”
Why don’t they just spend the money they made under Bush to bail themselves
out? They’d still have nearly a trillion dollars left over to spread amongst
themselves!

Of
course, they are not going to do that—at least not voluntarily.George W.
Bush was handed a $127 billion surplus when Bill Clinton left office. Because
that money was OUR money and not his, he did what the rich prefer to do—spend
it and never look back. Now we have a $9.5 trillion debt. Why on earth
would we even think of giving these robber barons any more of our money?

I
would like to propose my own bailout plan. My suggestions, listed below,
are predicated on the singular and simple belief that the rich must pull
themselves up by their own platinum bootstraps. Sorry, fellows, but you
drilled it into our heads one too many times: There...is... no... free...
lunch. And thank you for encouraging us to hate people on welfare! So,
there will be no handouts from us to you. The Senate, tonight, is going
to try to rush their version of a “bailout” bill to a vote. They must be
stopped. We did it on Monday with the House, and we can do it again today
with the Senate.

It
is clear, though, that we cannot simply keep protesting without proposing
exactly what it is we think Congress should do. So, after consulting with
a number of people smarter than Phil Gramm, here is my proposal, now known
as “Mike’s Rescue Plan.” It has 10 simple, straightforward points. They
are:

1.
APPOINT A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO CRIMINALLY INDICT ANYONE ON WALL STREET
WHO KNOWINGLY CONTRIBUTED TO THIS COLLAPSE.
Before any new money is expended, Congress must commit, by resolution,
to criminally prosecute anyone who had anything to do with the attempted
sacking of our economy. This means that anyone who committed insider trading,
securities fraud or any action that helped bring about this collapse must
go to jail. This Congress must call for a Special Prosecutor who will vigorously
go after everyone who created the mess, and anyone else who attempts to
scam the public in the future.

2.
THE RICH MUST PAY FOR THEIR OWN BAILOUT.
They may have to live in 5 houses instead of 7. They may have to drive
9 cars instead of 13. The chef for their mini-terriers may have to be reassigned.
But there is no way in hell, after forcing family incomes to go down more
than $2,000 dollars during the Bush years, that working people and the
middle class are going to fork over one dime to underwrite the next yacht
purchase.

If
they truly need the $700 billion they say they need, well, here is an easy
way they can raise it:

a)
Every couple who makes over a million dollars a year and every single taxpayer
who makes over $500,000 a year will pay a 10% surcharge tax for five years.
(It’s the Senator Sanders plan. He’s like Colonel Sanders, only he’s out
to fry the right chickens.) That means the rich will still be paying less
income tax than when Carter was president. This will raise a total of $300
billion.

b)
Like nearly every other democracy, charge a 0.25% tax on every stock transaction.
This will raise more than $200 billion in a year.

c)
Because every stockholder is a patriotic American, stockholders will forgo
receiving a dividend check for one quarter and instead this money will
go the treasury to help pay for the bailout.

d)
25% of major U.S. corporations currently pay NO federal income tax.Federal
corporate tax revenues currently amount to 1.7% of the GDP compared to
5% in the 1950s. If we raise the corporate income tax back to the level
of the 1950s, that gives us an extra $500 billion.All of this combined
should be enough to end the calamity. The rich will get to keep their mansions
and their servants, and our United States government (“COUNTRY FIRST!”)
will have a little leftover to repair some roads, bridges and schools.

3.
BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE LOSING THEIR HOMES, NOT THE PEOPLE WHO WILL BUILD AN
EIGHTH HOME.
There are 1.3 million homes in foreclosure right now.That is what is at
the heart of this problem. So instead of giving the money to the banks
as a gift, pay down each of these mortgages by $100,000. Force the banks
to renegotiate the mortgage so the homeowner can pay on its current value.
To insure that this help does no go to speculators and those who have tried
to make money by flipping houses, this bailout is only for people’s primary
residence. And in return for the $100K paydown on the existing mortgage,
the government gets to share in the holding of the mortgage so that it
can get some of its money back. Thus, the total initial cost of fixing
the mortgage crisis at its roots (instead of with the greedy lenders) is
$150 billion, not $700 billion.

And
let’s set the record straight. People who have defaulted on their mortgages
are not “bad risks.” They are our fellow Americans, and all they wanted
was what we all want and most of us still get: a home to call their own.
But during the Bush years, millions of them lost the decent paying jobs
they had. Six million fell into poverty. Seven million lost their health
insurance. And every one of them saw their real wages go down by $2,000.
Those who dare to look down on these Americans who got hit with one bad
break after another should be ashamed. We are a better, stronger, safer
and happier society when all of our citizens can afford to live in a home
that they own.

4.
IF YOUR BANK OR COMPANY GETS ANY OF OUR MONEY IN A “BAILOUT,” THEN WE OWN
YOU.
Sorry, that’s how it’s done. If the bank gives me money so I can buy a
house, the bank “owns” that house until I pay it all back— with interest.
Same deal for Wall Street. Whatever money you need to stay afloat, if our
government considers you a safe risk—and necessary for the good of the
country—then you can get a loan, but we will own you. If you default, we
will sell you. This is how the Swedish government did it and it worked.

5.
ALL REGULATIONS MUST BE RESTORED. THE REAGAN REVOLUTION IS DEAD.
This catastrophe happened because we let the fox have the keys to the henhouse.
In 1999, Phil Gramm authored a bill to remove all the regulations that
governed Wall Street and our banking system. The bill passed and Clinton
signed it. Here’s what Sen. Phil Gramm, McCain’s chief economic advisor,
said at the bill signing:

“In
the 1930s ... it was believed that government was the answer. It was believed
that stability and growth came from government overriding the functioning
of free markets.

“We
are here today to repeal [that] because we have learned that government
is not the answer. We have learned that freedom and competition are the
answers. We have learned that we promote economic growth and we promote
stability by having competition and freedom.

“I
am proud to be here because this is an important bill; it is a deregulatory
bill. I believe that that is the wave of the future, and I am awfully proud
to have been a part of making it a reality.”This bill must be repealed.
Bill Clinton can help by leading the effort for the repeal of the Gramm
bill and the reinstating of even tougher regulations regarding our financial
institutions. And when they’re done with that, they can restore the regulations
for the airlines, the inspection of our food, the oil industry, OSHA, and
every other entity that affects our daily lives. All oversight provisions
for any “bailout” must have enforcement monies attached to them and criminal
penalties for all offenders.

6.
IF IT’S TOO BIG TO FAIL, THEN THAT MEANS IT’S TOO BIG TO EXIST.Allowing
the creation of these mega-mergers and not enforcing the monopoly and anti-trust
laws has allowed a number of financial institutions and corporations to
become so large, the very thought of their collapse means an even bigger
collapse across the entire economy.No one or two companies should have
this kind of power. The so-called “economic Pearl Harbor” can’t happen
when you have hundreds—thousands -- of institutions where people have their
money. When you have a dozen auto companies, if one goes belly-up, we don’t
face a national disaster.If you have three separately-owned daily newspapers
in your town, then one media company can’t call all the shots (I know...
What am I thinking?! Who reads a paper anymore? Sure glad all those mergers
and buyouts left us with a strong and free press!). Laws must be enacted
to prevent companies from being so large and dominant that with one slingshot
to the eye, the giant falls and dies. And no institution should be allowed
to set up money schemes that no one can understand. If you can’t explain
it in two sentences, you shouldn’t be taking anyone’s money.

7.
NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD BE PAID MORE THAN 40 TIMES THEIR AVERAGE EMPLOYEE,
AND NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD RECEIVE ANY KIND OF “PARACHUTE” OTHER THAN THE
VERY GENEROUS SALARY HE OR SHE MADE WHILE WORKING FOR THE COMPANY.
In 1980, the average American CEO made 45 times what their employees made.
By 2003, they were making 254 times what their workers made. After 8 years
of Bush, they now make over 400 times what their average employee makes.
How this can happen at publicly held companies is beyond reason. In Britain,
the average CEO makes 28 times what their average employee makes. In Japan,
it’s only 17 times! The last I heard, the CEO of Toyota was living the
high life in Tokyo. How does he do it on so little money? Seriously, this
is an outrage. We have created the mess we’re in by letting the people
at the top become bloated beyond belief with millions of dollars. This
has to stop. Not only should no executive who receives help out of this
mess profit from it, but any executive who was in charge of running his
company into the ground should be fired before the company receives any
help.

8.
STRENGTHEN THE FDIC AND MAKE IT A MODEL FOR PROTECTING NOT ONLY PEOPLE’S
SAVINGS, BUT ALSO THEIR PENSIONS AND THEIR HOMES.
Obama was correct yesterday to propose expanding FDIC protection of people’s
savings in their banks to $250,000. But this same sort of government insurance
must be given to our nation’s pension funds. People should never have to
worry about whether or not the money they’ve put away for their old age
will be there. This will mean strict government oversight of companies
who manage their employees’ funds—or perhaps it means that the companies
will have to turn over those funds and their management to the government.
People’s private retirement funds must also be protected, but perhaps it’s
time to consider not having one’s retirement invested in the casino known
as the stock market. Our government should have a solemn duty to guarantee
that no one who grows old in this country has to worry about ending up
destitute.

9.
EVERYBODY NEEDS TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH, CALM DOWN, AND NOT LET FEAR RULE
THE DAY.
Turn off the TV! We are not in the Second Great Depression. The sky is
not falling. Pundits and politicians are lying to us so fast and furious
it’s hard not to be affected by all the fear mongering. Even I, yesterday,
wrote to you and repeated what I heard on the news, that the Dow had the
biggest one day drop in its history.Well, that’s true in terms of points,
but its 7% drop came nowhere close to Black Monday in 1987 when the stock
market in one day lost 23% of its value. In the ‘80s, 3,000 banks closed,
but America didn’t go out of business. These institutions have always had
their ups and downs and eventually it works out. It has to, because the
rich do not like their wealth being disrupted! They have a vested interest
in calming things down and getting back into the Jacuzzi.

As
crazy as things are right now, tens of thousands of people got a car loan
this week. Thousands went to the bank and got a mortgage to buy a home.
Students just back to college found banks more than happy to put them into
hock for the next 15 years with a student loan. Life has gone on. Not a
single person has lost any of their money if it’s in a bank or a treasury
note or a CD. And the most amazing thing is that the American public hasn’t
bought the scare campaign. The citizens didn’t blink, and instead told
Congress to take that bailout and shove it. THAT was impressive. Why didn’t
the population succumb to the fright-filled warnings from their president
and his cronies? Well, you can only say ‘Saddam has da bomb’ so many times
before the people realize you’re a lying sack of shite. After eight long
years, the nation is worn out and simply can’t take it any longer.

10.
CREATE A NATIONAL BANK, A “PEOPLE’S BANK.”If
we really are itching to print up a trillion dollars, instead of giving
it to a few rich people, why don’t we give it to ourselves? Now that we
own Freddie and Fannie, why not set up a people’s bank? One that can provide
low-interest loans for all sorts of people who want to own a home, start
a small business, go to school, come up with the cure for cancer or create
the next great invention. And now that we own AIG, the country’s largest
insurance company, let’s take the next step and provide health insurance
for everyone. Medicare for all. It will save us so much money in the long
run. And we won’t be 12th on the life expectancy list. We’ll
be able to have a longer life, enjoying our government-protected pension,
and living to see the day when the corporate criminals who caused so much
misery are let out of prison so that we can help reacclimate them to civilian
life—a life with one nice home and a gas-free car that was invented with
help from the People’s Bank.

Yours,

Michael
Moore

MichaelMoore.com

P.S.
Call your Senators now.. They are going to attempt their own version of
the Looting of America tonight. And let your reps know if you agree with
my 10-point plan.